Alone Together
by theyre-my-babies
Summary: For Spyfest 2015, Week One prompt. Ian and Yassen don't agree, then they do. They're both right. It doesn't matter.


A/N: Wow, first story posted on this account. Would not have predicted this one. First entry for Spyfest 2015, Week One prompt:

"Pre-Stormbreaker. What was life like before Ian died?"

Disclaiming Alex Rider, for tradition's sake.

*-ARARARARARARARAR-*

When Yassen Gregorovich sat down on the bleachers next to him, Ian knew why he was there.

"He's fast," Yassen observed after watching Alex practice on the school football field for a few minutes.

Ian knew his late brother's friend was waiting for him to reply. He took a moment to make Yassen look at him.

"Fast enough."

"Enough for what?" Yassen wondered, looking back to Alex.

"Enough to survive," Ian said. "Maybe even enough to be good."

Yassen shook his head. "He is fast enough to be a good football player," he replied. "He should be outrunning balls, not bullets."

"Bullets aren't outrun," Ian said, glancing at Yassen. "They're dodged."

"Not always." Yassen was still staring at Alex, tracking him across the field. Watching over him.

Yassen was right, and Ian knew it. The way he had chosen to raise Alex would one day lead him to his death – but Ian also knew that, in the meantime, Alex's training would save him many times over.

Alex couldn't stay hidden from Scorpia forever.

*-ARARARARARARARAR-*

Ian, two weeks later, was in full view of Scorpia. He snorted as he knocked on a door he wasn't supposed to have access to. He was having truce nights with Scorpia in Scorpia's room, drinking Scorpia's alcohol and trading Scorpia for riddles.

The door opened.

"Took you a whole two days this time," Yassen said. "Taking your time, Bond."

Ian scoffed. "Sayle is a creep."

"And I'm not?" Yassen raised an eyebrow, gesturing Ian inside his room.

"You are," Ian said, seeing the wall of security camera feeds on the opposite wall. "But you are the only creep whose alcohol I'll drink. Pour me a glass of whatever you're having."

Yassen nodded and went to the small table, where vodka was waiting with two glasses, while Ian leisurely sprawled out on Yassen's bed and hummed.

"You always get the comfortable ones," he complained when Yassen turned to him and raised an eyebrow, vodka-filled glasses in hand.

"That's because they always expect me to kill them if they anger me."

"Well, they're not completely wrong," Ian said, accepting his glass from Yassen.

Yassen stared pointedly at him for a moment. Ian straightened up and sat up, and made room on the bed for Yassen to sit.

For a few minutes, they drank their alcohol in silence, savoring the moment to ignore the world around them.

"You know where I stand," Ian murmured eventually.

Yassen nodded. "You're probably right, even."

"You're not wrong, though. You're never wrong."

"I will have you know that I make a habit of periodically being wrong," Yassen said, poking Ian's leg with the handle of a knife he'd pulled from nowhere. "Holds off the creepiness, if not the creeps."

Ian shook his head, batting away the knife, and took a sip of his vodka. "I thought about what you said."

"Which part?"

"About not always being able to dodge bullets," Ian said, looking at Yassen.

"Ah." Yassen didn't look at Ian, instead gazing at the wall in front of him.

"'You'll always be my enemy,'" Ian quoted at Yassen pointedly.

"'I have a lot of enemies,'" Yassen quoted back.

"This isn't over.'?"

The assassin sighed. "Yes, Ian, it is."

*-ARARARARARARARAR-*

" _I've discovered something. The Stormbreakers_ **must not** _leave the plant. I'm coming up to London at once. I'll check in when I get there, if I don't end up dead."_

*-ARARARARARARARAR-*

A/N: Quotes at the end of the second scene taken from the Stormbreaker movie, the rooftop scene with Yassen and Alex at the end. Yassen's page on the AR Wikia says he "Theorectically... really likes the _Stormbreaker_ movie." Also, title is from Fall Out Boy's "Alone Together".

(I really just want to talk about everything I wrote here and basically ever)


End file.
